VIDEO: Troy's defensive pressure too much for CCHS

By Ed Weaver

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

TROY - The Big 10 girls basketball race appears to be a Troy High-Catholic Central affair this season, much the same as two, three years ago.

Well, the Flying Horses won the first battle in convincing style on Tuesday night, throttling the Crusaders with an effective pressure defense and closing down passing lanes with their tall, long-armed trio of Krystyn Knockwood, Courtney Avery and Cheyenne Williams and posting a 46-32 victory.

The trio combined for just 18 points (Knockwood had nine) but the 6-foot Williams grabbed eight rebounds, Knockwood and Avery five each, all three players blocked two shots and Avery had three steals, Knockwood and Williams two each.

Oh, the Flying Horses guards made just as big of contributions, as sophomore Kiana Patterson shot Troy into an early lead and led all scorers with 15 points and junior Mary Pattison added 10 points, grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds and had two assists and two steals.

The victory was a sloppy one - play was ragged on both sides throughout - but the Flying Horses (3-1 overall) grabbed the lead in the Big Ten at 3-0, while CCHS fell to 2-1, 3-1.

"They're aggressive," Troy coach Paul Bearup said of his team's defense. "We had some breakdowns with a lot of fouling but they're working hard and they did a good job tonight. We limited them, they didn't get a lot of easy baskets in transition and that's huge for us."

Knockwood explained the strategy.

"Coach tells us to come out because he knows with our length and how tall we are will stop the (opposing) shots," she said. "Our defense is what's winning us games."

And, the Flying Horses forced the Crusaders into 15 first-half turnovers, many with their fullcourt press. Catholic High coach Audra DiBacco, having scouted the Flying Horses, expected a tough press but didn't expect to have such problems with it, admitting she'd never seen a Troy High pressure defense so effective.

"They did a great job, give Troy credit," DiBacco said. "They're long, they're lanky, they made us take some bad shots and we dug ourselves a ditch."

"That's how we play," Bearup said of the press. "We look to press anybody and everybody," Bearup said. "We have different presses that we used but the one that we used tonight we felt the press we did use was effective in slowing them down and cutting into their shot clock."

"With our size, we have a really big advantage, especially over this team," Avery said. "It really worked to our advantage tonight."

While the Troy defense certainly deserves some, credit the Crusaders' shooting - when they didn't turn the ball over - was woeful.

No Crusader hit the double-figure mark in scoring. Guard Alliyah Gillespie led CCHS with nine points and McFerran had eight.

Welch and McFerran hit 3-pointers in the early minuets to five CCHS a 6-3 lead, then the Crusaders missed 15 of their next 16 shots.

By that time, Troy had begun to take control of the contest.

Patterson drove the lane for a layup, then hit two 3-pointers to give the Flying Horses an 18-11 lead with 4:08 remaining in the first half.

"Second half, I thought we attacked them much better," DiBacco said, "and we were in the game for a while. Again, when you're down, you've got to take (long) shots and we didn't make shots. I don't think we did ourselves justice. We rushed and we didn't take care of the ball."